‘Life-saving and life-changing’: BC’s safe supply program gets major expansion
More drugs covered, more people eligible and increased access all promised as part of overdose crisis response
The Tyee (Canada)
Wednesday, September 16, 2020
Wednesday, September 16, 2020
Bold changes and a dramatic expansion are coming to safe supply efforts in B.C. in response to an increasingly toxic drug supply and the deadly overdose crisis. Eligibility for safe supply — prescribed untainted drugs or alternatives — will expand to nearly all people who access the street drug supply, even intermittently, under a policy directive from the B.C. Centre on Substance Use being finalized with the province. And registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses will soon be able to prescribe controlled substances under a public health order from provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry. Previously, only doctors and some pharmacists were allowed to prescribe safer alternatives to illicit drugs.
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